There Ain't No Sense to Anything

This has been the craziest April yet.  We have been swamped in rain-which is a good thing.  Unfortunately it means I can't keep up with the yard work that needs done.  It has been hard to look out and see the high grass or the weeds.  And it is pouring rain.

It has been unseasonably warm.  Highs in the 70's.  Wonderful to have the sun and warmth.  We did get a new front and it is going to cool down to normal next week.  Back to a sweater in the mornings and still wearing long pants.

I just had a quick visit from my cousin and it was a nice calm visit.  We talk about family a lot, and it is interesting that we are closer to each other than to our siblings.  We eat and talk a lot.  Last night we did genealogy for a good long time.  We studied maps of England to locate where ancestors lived.  We looked at photos and discussed history.  While he was talking to his wife and discussing a trip they are taking in May, I rushed outside to look at the sky.

He joined me to look at constellations and discuss names of stars and planets.  I love my Star Guide on my IPad.  I recommend it to everyone.

My older brother told me they had such a bad storm Thursday night.  He said he was afraid he would wake up in Kansas with Toto.  I am glad they are getting some rain for a while.  It is so dry in Texas in the summer. 

I am knitting along on my Sanquhar Cowl.  I started a pair of socks as a carry along project.  I am now at the point of making up my mind who is going to receive them.  That will tell me how long to make the foot.  I have two people in mind, but I guess I will have to toss a coin.

I am itching to start another sweater.  I really don't need another sweater.  I just like the length of the project.  It takes a lot to commit to a project like that.  I think that is a stupid reason to start a sweater.

I have been putzing along spinning my last bobbin of orange yarn.  I watched Wolf Hall yesterday on the computer while I was spinning.  I think this is going to be a beautiful yarn.  Such vivid color. 

My doctor finally is beginning to listen to me.  It has been so frustrating to me that I can't make them believe what I am saying.  I am on the third kind of medicine.  Fingers crossed this one seems to be the answer to the problem of regulating my b.p. without side effects.  My daily readings are pretty stable and I am not dizzy or woozy feeling.  It almost is like a cloud was lifted off my head after three days.  So-we will see.  Funny thing that the doctor told me all my blood work is normal.  They can't find anything else wrong, no matter what they dream up that needs to be tested. 

I got my serger back from the repair man.  I am lucky that I have found a guy that will come to the house and pick up either my sewing machine or the serger and bring it back all fixed.  Of course, I have to pay a little more for service.  Now I have to just make myself get up and start making those pillow cases that are on my shelf of "make this now" stuff.

Patty got her Spring haircut.  It was a traumatic experience for her and me.  She jumped, bucked, squirmed, jerked about.  When he was getting to the close trim with scissors to sculpt around her face and legs, I just held her down.  What should have been a one-hour job took two hours.  She is changing fast in some things with this dementia thing, and then there are days that she seems her usual self.

Other than that, my life seems to be on a slow-boat to nowhere.  I have my routines and my life is super simple.  It is very nice to just putter around and do a little bit of work every day.  I am very blessed.  I am just happy that my one little bit of health problem is probably on the road to okay.  Maybe now that my head is clearer I can actually get things done.

Happy Spring.  Maybe now most everyone around is experiencing green happenings instead of white and cold happenings.

Happy Easter!

 This is documentation that it is done and finished!  And it fits!

 Before I wrapped it up in the tissue, I got a picture of the inspiration picture.
So this journey is over!  Thank goodness!  And I made it in plenty of time of my self-imposed deadline.  As always, Easter is always a chilly day.  We had a little bitty cool-down, and a little bit of rain yesterday.  But it is still too warm to wear wool.  I did talk to my friend Friday night, and he had it on at a meeting to show everyone his new sweater!  It was too warm to have on this sweater.

So believe it or not, I got back to my sewing project.  I wanted to show how this pattern works.  First you sew three squares together to make a strip.  Then you make a nine-patch with three strips.

 Then you cut the nine-patch in half, and then cut the half into halves to get 4 squares that look like you really pieced the heck out of it.  And it was easy to do.  After all the squares are finished you can do all kinds of patterns.

 This is the fabric I am using-Terrain by Moda.

And am I knitting?  I did not do any knitting for two days, and a friend came to visit for those two days.  Good excuse to not knit.  We went to Goodwill instead, drank tea, and got caught up on all we have been doing.

And Friday I sat down and picked up my UFO de jour-the giraffe socks.  Man!  After that vest, this pattern seems so simple.  It is really quick to knit around one row.  I am now doing the afterthought heel.  The end is in site.  A finished UFO-what a novel thought.

And that's the week's news.  I spent a little time yesterday trying to do some more genealogy.  My friend that visits has been trying to find her family for 19 years, so I felt badly that I had given up finding mine.  I did find the names of siblings of my great-grandfather.  I found out that one of his sisters never married and lived in Washington, D.C. at one point.  That was interesting.  I wonder what she did.  I had found her picture once in a pile of photos that were in my grandmother's chest.  On the back it just said-Aunt Gertie.  She looked like a lot of women in the 30's with that waved hairstyle and girdled body.  Now I know a little more about her.

I saw my woodchuck yesterday during the rain.  Every time it thundered it would run back to a safe place.  Then it would run out and grab something to eat while standing up and watching for whatever it was that was making that loud noise!

My bachelor buttons have taken over the world.  But the color of blue is wonderful!  It looks really pretty with the pink of the weigelia and the coral of the red buckeyes.  The weeds are really happy with the rain we have had.  Sigh!

I want to finish with this quote that was on The Yarn Harlot's calendar a coupla years ago.  It is a great motto for any knitter, especially those of us that are crazy enough to put deadlines on stranded work:

"Never give up. And never, under any circumstances, face the facts."  -Ruth Gordon

Have a great week!

Clown Socks-Check!

Here's the pink socks drying on the rack in the laundry. Okay-why clown socks! Well, really-look at that pink yarn! Someone left it on the table during a stash exchange. I just stuck the balls of yarn in my bag while cleaning off the table after our meeting. Somewhere I wondered what to do with it. So the only thing I could think would tame the colors would be to use a solid. Try to find a solid pink sock yarn that would go with those colors and I ended up with this light pink. I found the Scandinavian Pattern Socks in the Little Book of Socks by Charlene Schurch. And now I have these really loud, pink stranded knit socks! We had such a lovely day yesterday! It actually got above freezing, the sun was shining, and some melting got done. There is a crunch now in the snow from the ice on top. Today we have clouds again, and the weather people say more snow. We will see. Then another mess on Wednesday. Really! Can't we just get on with Spring?

So for the first time in a long, long time, I have no socks on the needles! Can that be? Not even baby socks! So I finished the grey socks and the pink socks, and do I need more socks? I thought I could do a pair for H for her birthday in March. Maybe. But I am happy to focus on the sweater right now. I am still going to get going on the afghan for my nephew. Isn't it strange to not have a ton of projects going at one time? Maybe. But it feels good just to focus.

There is a show on NBC called "Who Do You Think You Are?" It is focused on famous people, but it is really interesting to me. I gave up on genealogy last year. But then I see this show. I think the question I want to answer right now is "What is Steve's story?" He was my paternal grandfather. He died in 1945 at the age of 42. I didn't realize until a while after my grandmother's death that she never ever talked about him. I think as a child we hear stories that our parents, grandparents, and maybe great-grandparents (in my case anyway) tell us. It is the story that they want us to know at that time. I know my grandmother's story before Steve and after Steve. But I know nothing about them as a couple. How did she meet him? Where did she meet him? I have found pictures of them together, especially with my father. So I tried at one time to find out the flow chart of genealogy with the usual searches of census records. I have found that frustrating because it allows ten years in between. There are large gaps. So I stopped and put it away. So today I am starting a new tactic. I have ordered his death and birth certificates. Maybe that can give me more info about his parents. I hope anyway. I just want to know Steve's story.

Well, let's see. It's Sunday. I am listening to NPR, and I am going to spend the day spinning the green yarn. And wait for the weather to change.

Have a good week. Be safe and watch out for the ice!